Maryville was
platted on September 1, 1845. Maryville's name originates from the town's first postmaster,
Amos Graham. Graham was one of the original settlers of what would later become downtown Maryville, and the city was named after his wife, Mary. In addition to his above historical role, Graham was also one of the original Nodaway County Commissioners and served as the first county clerk when the county was formally organized in 1845. Maryville, which is near the geographic center of Nodaway County, was also named the county seat in the same year. It has also been stylized as Marysville. The first house in Maryville was built by Jack (John) Saunders, who was a large slave owner. The first courthouse was built in 1846. Formerly, county government affairs would be held in the home of an early settler, I.N. Prather. An updated courthouse was constructed in 1853, the second of only three in the city's history. The current courthouse was built in 1881 with a design by
Edmond Jacques Eckel and
George R. Mann. Mann would later go on to design the
Arkansas State Capitol. The courthouse is currently listed on the
National Register of Historic Places and is adorned with a sculpture of a
pineapple, the sign of welcome. The original court complex included one of the country's only
rotary jails. The jail was torn down in 1984 and replaced with a new structure on the same site. The city was incorporated in 1856, annulled in 1857, reincorporated in 1859, annulled during the Civil War, reincorporated in 1869, disincoporated again in 1869 and finally formally incorporated on July 19, 1869, when the Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Council Bluffs Railroad (later acquired by the
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad) arrived. The
Wabash Railroad arrived in 1879. In 1894
Mary Augustine Giesen moved to Maryville and opened St. Francis Hospital.
Kentucky Derby connections In 1901, the horse
Elwood was foaled at Faustiana Farms, owned by Mrs. J.B. Prather, on the west side of Maryville. It won the
Kentucky Derby in 1904 and was the first Derby winner to be bred by a woman. Faustiana was located where the Maryville Country Club is today. Mrs. Prather also has connections with the second horse to be owned and bred by a woman to win the Derby –
Black Gold in 1924, which was the great grandchild of Faustus, the namesake of the Faustiana farm. Elwood and Black Gold are two of 10 Kentucky Derby winners with Nodaway County connections. Trainer
Ben A. Jones won the Derby in 1938, 1941, 1944, 1948, 1949 and 1952. His son
Jimmy Jones won in 1957 and 1958. They operated a horse farm at
Parnell, Missouri until their deaths (although their racing fame is tied to
Calumet Farm in
Kentucky). Memorabilia from their horse racing days are St. Francis Hospital and at the
Nodaway County Historical Society Museum.
Northwest Missouri State University founding In 1905, Maryville won a contest to get the Fifth District
Normal School, which would become
Northwest Missouri State University. It offered $58,672 and , including the Methodist Seminary, to the state. The college was on the northwest corner of the city, nearly adjoining the Wabash train station. The most significant structure on the land transferred to the state was the Thomas Gaunt mansion, which is also on the National Register and is the college President's residence. Gaunt owned an extensive nursery on his property, which was on a birch-lined street and is now the
Missouri Arboretum. The most recognizable building on the campus today is the Administration Building, designed by
John H. Felt. It is on the National Register and resembles
Brookings Hall at
Washington University in St. Louis, which was the Administration Building of the
1904 World's Fair in
St. Louis.
1931 lynching In 1931, a notorious
lynching occurred in Maryville when a mob of 2,000 to 4,000 people burned alive African American
Raymond Gunn, who was awaiting trial, charged with the attempted rape and killing of a 20-year-old white school teacher. One woman held her young girl up so the girl could get a better view of the naked man afire. A Maryville policeman directed traffic as Gunn burned. While the Sheriff said he knew who had committed the killing, nobody was ever charged.
Herbert Hoover connections In 1928 there was speculation that Maryville would become the "Western White House" for
Herbert Hoover when it was discovered that he owned a farm 15 miles south of town. The farm was actually only 80 acres and he had acquired it after holding the mortgage for his
Stanford University Class of 1895 roommate Samuel Wilson Collins. It was Iowa-native Hoover's only farm and Hoover visited it in 1933 after leaving office. He was accompanied by his former Secretary of Agriculture
Arthur M. Hyde. Hoover's vice president
Charles Curtis visited Maryville on October 4, 1932 where spoke at the Administration Building after being rained out of a planned appearance at the Courthouse.
Harry Truman connections Harry S. Truman (along with
Bess and
Margaret Truman) made the last of several visits to Maryville on August 3, 1962, when he dedicated the current post office. Truman had extensive ties to Maryville. During
World War I Truman was a member of the
129th Field Artillery Regiment in the
Missouri National Guard, which is headquartered in Maryville. Truman commanded Battery D in the war of the 129th. The 129th official motto is "Truman's Own" because of the affiliation. During the
Meuse-Argonne Offensive during World War I in 1918, Truman prophetically told his troops, ""Right now, I'm where I want to be – in command of this battery. I'd rather be here than president of the United States." Among the original 129th soldiers was Edward V. Condon (1893–1974) who later operated the Condon Corner Drug Store across the street on the Square after the war. Truman dedicated the 129th's armory on the northwest side of
Bearcat Stadium on the college campus on February 20, 1955. The 1955 armory was repurposed as the Jon T. Rickman Electronic Campus Support Center in 2003, when a new armory was built further west of the campus near the Maryville Country Club, which is the site of the original Faustiana Farm complex. Many of Maryville's most active citizens have ties to the 129th, including Leigh Wilson (1881–1978), who rose to rank of Brigadier General. Wilson, who operated the Wilson Motel in Maryville, as well as the Hitching Post restaurant, was one of the biggest proponents for broadening Maryville's economic base away from the college. Truman's sister Mary Jane Truman, who was active in the
Order of Eastern Star, visited Maryville and Nodaway County several times for Eastern Star events before, during and after the Truman presidency.
Miscellaneous In 1969, Maryville received an
All-America City Award. In 1987, the Palms Bar in town began sponsoring the "World's Shortest
Saint Patrick's Day Parade." The parades, which are less than a block long, have been getting shorter each year as other towns compete for the title. One of the mainstays of events has been a garbage truck driving down the street at the beginning, pouring out buckets of green water as a Maryville homage to the dyeing of the
Chicago River green. In 2015, the parade moved from being a block off the square to actually being on the square after it became sponsored by Burny's Sports Bar. In 1994,
Mozingo Lake opened east of Maryville. Its
Mozingo Lake Golf Course has courses designed by
Donald Sechrest and
Tom Watson (which opened in 2016). In 1996, the
Maryville Treatment Center, a minimum security prison, opened in a renovated
Franciscan Sisters of Mary Motherhouse which had been built in 1947 and has a landmark yellow steeple on the bluffs above the
One Hundred and Two River on the east side of Maryville.
American football Maryville became a football powerhouse in 1994 when
Mel Tjeerdsma became coach of
Northwest Missouri State Bearcats football. The Bearcats played in the 1998, 1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016
NCAA Division II Football Championship games, winning in 1998, 1999, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016. The basketball team won national titles in the NCAA Division II Basketball Championship in 2017, 2019 and 2021. In addition, the
Maryville High School football team appeared in 1996, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2017 (winning in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2017, in addition to an earlier championship in 1982) state championship games. The history of championship victories have earned the town nickname of "Title Town." The high school has the unique mascot of "
Spoofhounds." Both schools have green and white for their school colors.
Adam Dorrel, a Maryville High graduate, succeeded his former boss Tjeerdsma when he retired as coach in 2010 and kept up the tradition winning the national titles in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
Minor league baseball Maryville was home to the
Maryville Comets, a
minor league baseball team, in 1910 and 1911. The Comets played as members of the
Class D level
Missouri-Iowa-Nebraska-Kansas League.
2012 sexual assault A controversial case arose in 2012 when a boy, 17 at the time of the incident, was arrested for the rape and
sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. A 15-year-old boy was accused of doing the same to the girl’s 13-year-old friend, and a third boy admitted to recording the first boy's alleged assault on a cellphone. A significant controversy arose in 2013 when the county prosecutor dropped
felony and misdemeanor charges against the first boy, who was related to an influential former state representative
Rex Barnett, despite the Sheriff's office reporting absolute confidence that the evidence they had gathered being sufficient for a prosecution, including the boy's confession recorded on video. The
Nodaway County prosecutor dropped the felony sexual exploitation charge against the third boy. Outrage in online communities soon followed when the story surrounding this case was revisited in October 2013. National news media described the situation as "horrifying" and "a nightmare". In 2014, a
special prosecutor was put in charge to reinvestigate the case. The first boy pleaded guilty to
misdemeanor second-degree endangerment of the welfare of a child for leaving her outside her house, and was sentenced by Missouri Circuit Judge Glen Dietrich to four months in jail that were suspended in favor of two years
probation. The boy was sentenced in juvenile court for the assault. The incident is featured in the 2016
Netflix documentary
Audrie & Daisy. The victim,
Daisy Coleman, died by suicide on August 4, 2020. Coleman's mother, Melinda Coleman, died by suicide about four months later, on December 6. ==Geography==